（is it wrong somewhere?） if this were not true, then we would be able...
if this were not true, then we would be able to predict the behaviour and charater of a person from the moment they were botn.

'If this were not true' Shoud I change were to was? And why?

Otherwise, that is the meaning of this sentence.

Question

（is it wrong somewhere?）   if this were not true, then we would be able...
if this were not true, then we would be able to predict the behaviour and charater of a person from the moment they were botn.

'If this were not true'  Shoud I change were to was? And why?

Otherwise, that is the meaning of this sentence.

Answer

"were" here is an example of the subjunctive form in English - quite rare.  In the second conditional, it is more correct to say "if I / he / she / this / that were" not "was".  But in practice, "was" is so widely used that it is not considered to be a mistake any more..

In your sentence, "this" refers back to a phrase in the previous sentence which you have not quoted so it is impossible to know the meaning. ("character" "born" - typos)

Answer

Were is right .. it's the second case of " if"
It indicates that this thing is unlikely to be true

Réponses · 4

Vous n'avez pas encore trouvé vos réponses ?

Ne manquez pas cette occasion d'apprendre une langue depuis chez vous. Découvrez notre sélection de professeurs de langues expérimentés et inscrivez-vous dès maintenant à votre premier cours !